Elinormal

Book excerpt: Elinor Malcolm is an eleven-year-old girl whose mother has big plans for her. When Elinor is rejected as a ballet student from a prestigious ballet academy, her attorney mother threatens a lawsuit, and Elinor is granted a spot in the program &– the only problem is that Elinor has no interest in ballet. After sitting out the first class, she finds an urban park to hang out at in lieu of dancing. There she meets an older girl named Indira with a seemingly magic ability to grant Elinor's wishes. Eventually, Elinor is found out. She is unceremoniously dropped from the program and returns to her humdrum life where she's miserable and friendless. Indira reappears out of the blue one day and helps her look deep inside to find out what she's capable of. Eventually, through Indira's intercession and a chance meeting with a local writer, Elinor opens up enough to make a friend at school who enjoys all the same things she does. In the final magical scene, all the characters in Elinor's life converge where secret identities are revealed and Elinor has an epiphany about the nature of relationships and the power of love.